The fracking industry really doesn’t want you to see “Gasland 2.” The industry has brought in anti-science film-maker Phelim McAleer to produce an industry informercial, “FrackNation.” McAleer has a long track record of trying to disrupt and disinform. Here’s Part 2 of DeSmogBlog’s exposé of this oil and gas industry PR campaign — JR.

Part one of the DeSmogBlog investigation of "FrackNation" – a film made in response to "Gasland 2" – honed in on the past track records and funding streams of co-directors Phelim McAleer and Ann McElhinney.

We revealed that Donors Trust/Donors Capital – the "dark money ATM of the right" – partially funded their first two films, "Mine Your Own Business" and "Not Evil, Just Wrong."

We also revealed that "Not Evil," a climate change denial documentary, was utilized by a partner of Americans for Prosperity (AFP) to push the Balanced Education for Everyone (BEE) campaign.

That campaign calls for a "balanced" scientific teaching of the climate change "controversy" and parallels ones pushed for via an American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) model bill, by the Discovery Institute, and by the Heartland Institute.

Yet, what about "FrackNation"? Who bankrolled it and are the screenings and is the tour really a grassroots endeavor?

Grassroots or Astroturf? Follow the Email List

Interested in where "FrackNation" and its film-making team are getting their funding from, I signed up for its email list. In so doing, I learned that Market Aces LLC runs it.

"From the start, Market Aces had a vision to offer low-cost website development solutions to small businesses and a niche market within the political and non-profit sector – but only those who are dedicated to protecting the American Dream and freedom," its website reads.

According to LI's website, it "teaches conservative Americans how to influence policy through direct participation, activism, and leadership." Its website also explains that "since 1979, [it] has trained more than 119,000 conservative activists, leaders, and students."

Playing by API's Employee Advocacy Playbook?

Beyond getting email list building help from one of the key "feeder" nodes in the right-wing network, it's also questionable how many of the funders of "FrackNation" were of the grassroots variety. As the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette explained,

[T]he roster of "executive producers" who have donated at least $1 includes scores of energy industry associates. The filmmakers said Thursday they plan to return any donations given by "senior" workers in the industry, which they define as executives.

Among those who donated money to the KickStarter campaign: "the director of an Ohio-based oil and gas outreach program and the head of external affairs at Cabot Oil and Gas, the company that's fought accusations of water contamination in Dimock, Pa., for the past several years," according to the Post-Gazette.

"Employees are the best brand ambassador you can come by…The most important principle to remember is to create a culture of advocacy," she said in Houston. "This is really a community that regularly communicates and engages in the political process. It gives them all the necessary tools and empowers them to get involved and make a difference."

This may explain why the film not only raised money with such rapidity, but also has full industry backing for its nationwide tour

"FrackNation" Screens at House Committee, Josh Fox Arrested in Hearing of Same Committee

“It’s important that politicians educate themselves about fracking. It’s the future of American energy,” McAleer wrote in an email promoting the Capitol Hill screening. “With all the lies and misinformation out there, we’re excited to bring the truth about fracking to Capitol Hill.”

“He was glad to have these points made in an easily digestible way, on screen,” McAleer told Weigel of Smith's reaction to seeing the film. “People know there's something smelly about Gasland, but people are suspicious about how it smells.”

Independent Journalists? Oh, Really?

This condo was purchased by them in May 2010, according to property records matching the listed address for Hard Boiled Films LLC, the listed producer of "FrackNation."

And though it's obvious from the filmmaker's track-records that they have ties to powerful right-wing upper-level circles, sources told DeSmogBlog that McAleer interviewed them under deceptive pretenses.

"Trees were cleared and the ground leveled to make room for a four-acre drilling site less than 1,000 feet away from their land," an account in Vanity Fair explained. "The Sautners could feel the earth beneath their home shake whenever the well was fracked. Within a month, their water had turned brown. It was so corrosive that it scarred dishes in their dishwasher and stained their laundry."

In an interview with DeSmogBlog, Sautner said McAleer approached him under misleading pretenses, claiming to be an anti-fracking filmmaker hoping to help out in Ireland's fracking fight.

"I was hesitant at first to do the interview, but he begged us and we said 'okay.' Everything he ended up using in the video he took out of context. He had it all set up from the beggining of what he wanted to show and he wasn't going to show the truth," Sautner told DeSmogBlog.

Victoria Switzer, another Dimock victim of Cabot interviewed for "FrackNation" who spent four hours speaking with McAleer in her house (her interview did not appear in the film), also expressed similar sentiments to DeSmogBlog.

He called he assured me he was doing an unbiased documentary both sides of the issues. I think it is significant because it goes to his lying, his manipulation of the truth, and misrepresentation of his agenda. I never would have let him in my home if I knew what his agenda was. Later when I saw some of his other work I was sickened that this man sat at the table my husband built in the home that is now threatened by the industry he serves!

Big Tobacco Player, Climate Changer Deniers Makes Film Apperances

"FrackNation" itself features numerous fossil fuel industry shills-for-hire, climate change deniers, as well as one former Big Tobacco apologist, all posing as "independent experts." The roster of hired guns is robust:

In the film, Ames compares the chemical compounds found in fracking fluid to those found in cabbage.

"If I gave you all of the long names of the chemicals in cabbage that give cancer to rats in high levels, you could get scared, but there's really no danger in cabbage," he stated in the film. "If people say fracking's causing cancer, then they don't know what they're talking about."

-Robert Bryce – Bryce's analysis was also featured early-on in the film, though his fellowship at the Manhattan InstituteCenter for Energy Policy and the Environment - heavily funded by the oil and gas industry – goes unmentioned. Bryce was also interviewed extensively in the industry propaganda film, "Haynseville."

-James Delingpole – Delingpole is an infamous climate change denier and columnist for the UK Telegraph. In the film, Delingpole hints that the U.S. anti-fracking movement might be funded by Russia for geopolitical purposes.

"In fact, I would say Russia is screwed if it can't export its gas," Delingpole said in the film. "So, it really is very important for Russia that the shale gas revolution does not happen. It is also in Russia's interest to fund those environmental groups which are committed to campaigning against fracking. That's how it works."

"Merchants of Doubt" At It Again

McAleer can best be described as a favorite corporate third-party advocate, a hired gun to sow seeds of doubt on the ecological impacts of fracking.

"[Third party advocacy] offers camouflage, helping to hide the vested interest that lurks behind a message," wrote Rampton and Stauber in "Trust Us We're Experts." "Putting the same message in someone else's mouth gives it a credibility that it would not otherwise enjoy."

In Dec. 1953, PR hegemon Hill and Knowlton formed the Tobacco Industry Committee for Public Information, also forming the Tobacco Institute in 1963. The U.S. Dept. of Justice would later say that "deceive[d] the American public about the health impacts of smoking."

Like Climate Progress on Facebook

Thanks to Steve Horn, and are you any relation to the late Steve Horn, Congressman from Long Beach? He was an old friend, who invited me to testify before his committee in 1999, and a giant- his office in DC had a sign on the door, No PAC’s. Steve was fairminded, environmentally aware, and a Republican. He has no equivalent today.

Of all of the things the oil companies have done, their penetration of schools and the media might be the most evil- and effective. Thanks for the pushback. We need much, much more. I got nowhere with my own proposal, but if others carry the flag instead, that’s OK with me.